The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Hunger for financial information growing

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Sunday, Apr 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Hunger for financial information growing

Photo: K. Ananthan

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Indians do not consume financial information. For a country which has a far younger population than the US and China with the large majority in the age group of 25-40 and with a lot more potential for earning and disposable income than what their elders have had a few years ago, it is ironical.

They should know what are the products and avenues available for them to save, invest and improve themselves financially.

What they require is unbiased counselling on where to put their money, Udayan Mukherjee, Executive Editor, CNBC TV 18, tells G. Satyamurty.

He points out that investors’ camp attracts more than 1,000 to 1,200 people wherever it is held because people want to know quite a lot.

But “media is the most under-penetrated market in the country. We don’t consume media here and feel that we should get the information free.” Such a situation would soon change. There would be a significant growth in financial media too.

Mr. Mukherjee was in Coimbatore in connection with an investors’ camp.

By 2020, India will be next only to the US and China in terms of GDP. “We know that India is an important country. But we have never been looked at as an important financial centre. Now that is changing. India and China are the two best financial markets in the world.

During the last two years, India has become the centre of focus. Now India is featured even in international financial papers like the Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times, etc. Everyone overseas wants to invest in India, be it a company or an investor, in some form or other. And that is the bedrock on how we change.”

However, even in western countries there is not much expertise regarding the ground realities in India. Hence, there is hunger for quality financial information regarding India overseas. That opens up a huge opportunity for financial journalism as Indian journalists could fill that gap with regard to economic information.

Thus financial journalism is fast evolving in India because it also depends upon the demand. However, “we have not even scratched the surface. There will definitely be more players.”

He is confident “in two years there will be 10 more business channels and five more pink papers in every market and all will survive. When Hyundai entered the market, there was a feeling that the market-leader Maruti would suffer. On the contrary while Hyundai is also growing fast, Maruti is also growing at a rate of 20 to 25 per cent. Situation is no different in newspaper industry. There will be competition and everyone will be able to survive. Of course, the market-leader will continue to have a disproportionately more revenue than the late entrants.”

Mr. Mukherjee asserts that now financial journalism has started attracting top quality men because they are able to earn on a par with top people in any other sector. Many might quit even in a couple of years looking for greener pastures. This is according to the law of the market. “Of course, this is a development that is witnessed during the past two to three years.”

The difference between financial journalism in print and electronic media is significant. The first is that on the TV, one would be able to see the reaction of the top honchos of the company live. Thus it becomes a live vehicle of information. Besides, as financial information has a very serious impact on the investors and decision-makers, electronic media scores over the print in this regard. “If you are an investor you cannot afford to wait for the newspaper delivered next morning.”

While admitting that there could be “a few unscrupulous elements” in financial journalism too, he asserts there is not much scope for manipulation now because the spectators are no more dependent on what the journalist thinks of a particular issue. “They can listen to the top management or the decision makers directly.” Thus, dissemination of information has become much more democratic than in the olden times.

Similarly, there is not much “quid pro quo” situation in terms of providing information to various agencies.

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